The Big Five

Visitng Africa as a tourist is stereotyped by a chance to witness "The Big Five" of safari wildlife encounters: buffalo, elephant, leopard, lion and rhino. While we have yet to see any of these beasts we enjoy debating our personal 'big five' updates daily and have been lucky to view some amazing wildlife, especially here in Tanzania.

Our current list, with only some minor deliberation as to its rankings:
1) Sea turtle hatchlings
2) Chameleon
3) Bats
4) Spider
5) Crocodile

While witnessing the sea turtle hatchlings was a truly amazing experience, one might wonder about the auspicious rankings of the other critters we've seen. Well, the chameleon was truly cool and put on a fascinating show with his oven-mit claws, rotating eyes and comical contrast of clumsiness and predation. Bats? Not only lots of bats...like a swarm, but big bats, larger than a crow, swift, agile and silent. Spider ranked ahead of crocodile? Absolutely, because when we say spider, we mean one of those jungle-dwelling science fiction monstrosities that you'd gladly trade an encounter with a hungry croc should it be chasing you.

We'll update the list as we witness other spectacular wildlife. But I'm betting, shiver, unless we encounter, sweat, some more beastly arachnid, that the spider is staying in the top five.

Rafiki

Put aside any worries of the children assimilating in rural Afrika. While we may have enjoyed a soft landing in Ghana due to the relative isolation of our location and our volunteer commitments, the kids have met the immersion and overwhelming friendliness of our daily lives in Tanzania with exuberance. Pictured, the oldest with a few of her many rafiki (friends) in the third-story shell of an unfinished building that is a popular local playground. While our younger daughter remains the shyer of the two, they have both made many friends and acquaintances throughout the community. Enthusiastic cries of "Mzungu" (white people) have been replaced by the familiar shout of "Sarah!" everywhere in town. The girls wear uniforms to school and the glances, stares and outright gawks we used to encounter have been replaced by bright comments of "...Nakoza..." as everyone is notably impressed with their dawning of the universally recognizable maroon skirt and tie. We are especially eager to encounter the few Masai who live in Ukerewe and they seem equally enthusiastic for our company, willingly engaging us in lengthly, one-sided dialogs of Kiswahili that they must certainly understand we don't comprehend a single word of. Seeming to appreciate that we are easily more recognizable and rare than themselves, one of Kirsten's introductions even involved a dramatic pantomime of his eyes bugging out upon seeing her.

High School Afrika Style

School's in! We have settled into our schedules quite nicely and the day to day routine of classes seems comfortably familiar. The kids have met the challenge of attending what is essentially sophomore year of high school, having been advanced from Form I to Form II as much of the former is taught only in Kiswahili. While their technical subjects are thankfully taught in English they are also immersed in Kiswahili and have one period a day in that language so they are learning it at a surprising rate. If we don't work to keep up, they'll soon be gossiping and joking behind our backs! Their schedule includes math, physics, biology, chemistry, civics and history in addition to English and Kiswahili. They seem fascinated with the sciences and were only daunted by their first day of math: quadratic equations. Possibly a little deep for the third-grader.

Teaching here has been very rewarding and much less challenging than we had expected. Kirsten is teaching English at both a primary school and the high school - as many as four or five periods a day. I have daily periods of biology and several periods a week of chemistry and physics with the "seniors" in Form III.

One detail of school here stands in stark contrast to education at home...the stick. Corporal punishment is a daily fact of life for all students. While the teachers and administrators insist on its importance and efficacy in maintaining order, it is strikingly cruel and capricious, no pun intended. Our children have escaped the cane so far but came home wide-eyed a couple of times with stories of wondering if they might be next. At dinner last night a couple of kids were wilding in the restaurant and ours were strangely quick to proclaim that "they need the stick."

Nansio, Ukerewe Tanzania

Red-eye from Accra to Nairobi, brief layover in Kenya then on to Mwanza, Tanzania. The flight from Nairobi to Mwanza is in a small twin-engine commuter and flying at a lower altitude gives us spectacular views of the famous geography in this part of the continent including Mount Kilimanjaro, Ngorongoro Crater, the Serengetti and Lake Victoria. Our overnight in Mwanza is pleasant at a small tourist resort called The Talapia with pool, internet, bars and serving some delicious Asian cuisines: Indian, Japanese, Thai. First thing in the morning we are on a ferry for the three-hour Lake Victoria crossing to Ukerewe. Our reception in Nansio is almost overwhelming and by the second morning we have met the District Executive (i.e. governor), Regional Executive (i.e. mayor) and the equivalencies of city counsellors and the superintendent of schools. We then visited the schools we'll be teaching in, meeting their directors and students who are presented in ranks at attention. We'll be teaching English, Biology, Chemistry and Physics at the high school here and will witness the graduation of its very first senior class. The girls will attend "Form 1", the local equivalent of a high school sophomore at home, assigned there by the director with his unabashed apologies for the state of academics. We received no apologies, however, for the state of our accommodations and today have had to relocate to much more comfortable digs. While the previous 'hotel' a self-proclaimed 'beach resort' was bad enough that we didn't feel at all bad about complaining or leaving, there was a sense of vindication when an Aussie we ran into said he'd bailed on it after his first night compared to the two we endured. In all Nansio is pleasant. It is thankfully cooler here than in Ghana. The people are friendly but very little English is spoken - Kswahili is the local dialect and we are studying vigorously, sad not to have been better prepared having been told that this was an English-speaking area. There is no internet or cell phone reception for us so we'll likely be out of touch unless we travel weekends. Fortunately the time-zone, electricity and satellite were all in harmony last night and we were lucky to catch the inauguration on TV. Kwa herini.

Enjoying a bit of Accra

Okay, I'll admit it. I'm sitting in a sportsbar. Air conditioning. Cold draft beer. Man-U on the big screen. American music. The food is great. Nachos. The atmosphere is friendly. The kids are distracted by the foosball table and Chloe wants to learn how to shoot pool with some local. The Brits in the next booth have a deck of cards and soon I'm dealing Texas Hold'em. Initially we were reluctant to go in, but I haven't felt this much a sense of escape since we hit the ESPNZone one night at Disneyland. Besides, it's Karaoke Friday. Wouldn't want to miss a thing like that. Quick hop back to our room to tuck the kids in and by 9:00 the bar has gone standing room only and our booth is prime real estate for any number of locals who'd like to sit for a moment. By locals I mean an endless stream of African women so beautiful my wife keeps poking me in the ribs and saying "did you see that?" "mmm-hmmm" i sheepishly reply. By sit for a moment i mean HELLO! I squeeze further in, get as narrow as possible, sit up a bit straighter, scoot yet a bit closer to the wife and try to keep the conversation with my new friends as superficial as possible: Yes, i am an american. Yes, that is my wife. Yes, i'm sure those Brits across the table would love your attention. No, i'm not going to sing. Goodnight.

Tomorrow night, "All You Can Drink" 10 pm to 1 am for only $10! Too bad we have to fly out.

Fu-fu

I'll take fu-fu and a Pee Cola. I'd already asked if they had beer or coffee. There's about six kinds of beer brewed in Ghana plus a millet-beer the locals home-brew that I heard Widmer Brothers are breaking out as their next summer ale. Sadly, a beer is hard to find. If there's no beer, why not enjoy the local pop. Pee Cola. Not urine, but rather a very common surname in Ghana. Although pee might taste better, especially if it was cold. Fu-fu is a whole different deal. It's pounded starch. cassava, plantain or yam pounded with a stick in a large stone pestle. When I say pounded with a stick in a stone pestle, I'm talking one of those third-world bent old lady with a 10 foot stick and stone bowl laboring in the sun you can only really appreciate if you've seen it. In ghana, if the food is not intriguing enough for you, you get to eat with your hand. Fu-fu may not seem exotic in its description but when you've seen it made, then grabbed up a handful of it, dipped it in some spicy stew and crammed it in your hole, the adventurous eater in you is fulfilled. That only seemed impressive until our kids asked for the grasscutter. You'll have to google that one; filter out lawnmower, steer towards large rodent.

Elmina Clinic

Hello everyone. Thank you for your comments!
Chris has been doing most of the blog. I think it looks really great. I have mostly been at the clinic when he was able to work on it and only just saw much of it today. The only correction I must make is that there was no actual beating of the children at the clinic: the nurse would just brandish a stick if the kids were not behaving. The children were well behaved!!
The clinic was a busy health center that provided prenatal care, family planning, uncomplicated OB/GYN and walk-in care. I was the only physician working in the walk-in section. They did have community medical examiners and midwives. We treated all kinds of illness and injury. There was certainly no patient privacy. In fact, often a neighboring patient would help interpret. There was also no equipment--like gloves, suture or sheets. There was medicine. You send the patients to the dispensary to get their medicine after you see them. They frequently ran out of medicines. Every patient expects to get several prescriptions (Tylenol counts and requires a prescription). In the poor town where we lived about 60% of the population was illiterate so communication was hard.
We saw tons of malaria - tons and tons. There were a lot of wounds and cellulitis. There was quite a bit of Typhoid, too. (Note: we are vaccinated for typhoid and taking preventative medicine for malaria). We treated a lot of people for worms, but didn't I didn't get to see any. We referred anyone who was sick or needed more tests than we could perform--like an x-ray. It was not clear to me how easily our referrals were seen since the medical center was in the next town. We could do about 5 tests--u/a, urine pregnancy, hemoglobin, malaria smear, typhoid test, glucose. That's it.
I was struck by how muscular all of the people were and some of the impossibly beautiful figures. There would be a young woman with a body better than Beyonce' selling bananas on her head on the side of the street. Michelle, the Canadian medical student who stayed with us asked me to look at this abdominal wall "mass". It turned out to be a very well defined abdominal muscle--the first pack of incredible 6-pack abs. I guess that is not frequently seen in the doughy Canadian population.
I didn't see any psychiatric patients, no one who drank or smoked or used drugs. There were no drug seekers as we didn't even have any narcotics. Not one patient complained despite long waits and little to offer.
Now I face two months of not practicing medicine. That will be the longest I have gone in 20 years! Yippie!

School's In!

Sarah went to school in Elmina today. The Etsiapa Memorial Methodist Primary school, a short walk from our house, is a small collection of open-air cinderblock classrooms housing grades one through six. Six hundred kids in fewer than ten classrooms with as many as ninety kids per class in the fifth and sixth grades. This is one of the nicer schools we've seen in the area and the staff and students are very welcoming. The children look smart in their yellow or blue uniforms. Sarah made a splash with the younger kids but was instantly accepted by the students in her class and was quick to make a few new friends who showed her around. By all accounts she did well and was even called to the chalkboard during math and science. I think the experience was uplifting and she'd have loved to stay on but unfortunately we are departing for Accra today. That's Sarah in the center of the picture.

Toddler

It wasn't in the brochure, but our house comes with an 18-month old named Faith. Also not advertised: dog, puppy, chickens and roosters, goats and a pig. While all of these have provided gleeful distraction for our children they have each compounded our acclimatization. Faith is a joy. She is also omnipresent; any gathering, all meals, nap time, bed time, what-would-have-been-a-moment-of-peace time. I was daunted by bringing a twelve-year old and an eight-year old to Africa. Now it appears we'll have a toddler along as well. Pictured: Faith with the girls, and, Faith with the mortar and pestle used to pound fufu (fufu is food, not the name of the puppy).

Nzulezo

It is not every day that you sit in Nzulezo and receive an oral history of the village from its chief. Traveling this weekend, we have ventured west, almost to Ivory Coast. Over six hours by bus and tro-tro to Beyin, then an hour by dugout canoe to Nzulezo. Accessible only by water, Nzulezo is a stilt village that for over 400 years has enjoyed a peacefully isolated existence on the water. This feels uniquely African. We are guests of the Acid Project, acronym for the Amansuri Conservation and Integrated Development Project, not some Keysey-esque hallucination. While their existence seems hard the people are friendly and welcoming. The small village is currently residence for 500 and has a school, three denominations sharing a small chapel and a bar. There is even a guest house should you like to stay. Fortunately we are not staying and after our peaceable paddle back to Beyin we escape to the tranquil seclusion of Beyin Beach Resort. The warm ocean, soft sand, cool breezes and swaying palms of the resort are not uniquely African - we could be in Hawaii or Mexico or the Bahamas but we are enchanted with the welcoming climate and our thatch-roofed hut facing the ocean. Our hosts, Nina, a Brit, and her Ghanaian husband Partick Sarpong, in addition to operating the resort, have begun a sea turtle conservation project. There are three species of endangered sea turtles here including leatherback which are thought to be near extinction. These turtles may not reproduce until they have reached an age of twenty-five years and the survival rate from egg to adult may be less than 10%. The Sarpongs hire security to patrol the beach at night and protect turtle nests from predators and locals, whom they will also pay for revealing a nest or delivering eggs unharmed; sometimes two or three times a day in buckets of over a hundred. They also pay local fishermen a stipend to release captured turtles from fishing nets instead of killing them or eating them. Awakened at dawn the first morning there by the couple's young children, we hurry to the beach with the excitement of Christmas morning to see a nest of over 70 turtle hatchlings safely reach the ocean and swim off into the surf, tiny heads breaking the surface for a breath before disappearing into the waves. We are uplifted by the stark contrast of the experience to the harsh poverty that surrounds us in Elmina, a small glimmer of hope that something here is succeeding against difficult odds.

Coffee!

Day of days. While walking around Cape Coast, Kirsten paused as though she'd spotted a lion in the savannah. "Let's...look...over here!" she exclaimed after some hesitation. Coffee! Kirsten had spotted a cafe, only the second we'd seen. The first was somewhat of a Nescafe' sham. But lo, here is the real thing. Fresh-brewed, dark deliciousness unparalleled in this hemisphere. Served hot, served iced, even cappuccino on the menu. Our exploration of Cape Coast had started at its center, marked by the statue on of a giant crab on an enormous pedestal worthy of Napoleon's triumphant mounted likeness. Easy to find. Good point of reference. While our first trip had been interrupted by Chloe vomiting in the grocery, we had continued to explore town in outward circles until our radius brought us to the other good point of reference, Cape Coast Castle. And there, across the street from the biggest landmark in town, a cafe. Why had no one told us when we asked? Could it have been any easier to find? If only our exploration of Cape Coast had begun as tourists and not taken us directly to the internet cafe and the market. We had arrived at Cafe' de Como. Its proprietor, Como, of the cafe's name, greeted us warmly and with the familiarity of your neighborhood's Starbucks barista. Kirsten had it iced. I took it hot. The kids savored delicate crepes and fresh-squeezed orange juice. We had a wonderful conversation with Como, who lamented that the tour books and websites would not include him without further recommendation. Imagine our chagrin! I promised to share, blog, recommend and comment all over the world wide web. Cafe' de Como, Victoria Road, Cape Coast, Ghana. Directly across from the Cape Coast Castle. (+233) 24-6899992. Breakfast begins at 6:30 am. Reasonable prices; surprise at my small tip. My wholehearted recommendation. See you there tomorrow.

Java House, Elmina, Ghana

Africa's Gold Coast is ripe with history after all, so I'll tell you the story of how our house came to be named. It's called the Elmina Java Museum. 'Java House' for short. Note, no coffee. In the 18th century there was a Dutch governor at Elmina Castle named Ulzen. With slavery abolished here in the early 1800s, the Dutch intermarried with local women. A great grandson of that governor, Manus Ulzen, joined the Royal Dutch East Indies Army in 1831 when they were recruiting from tropical climates to try to reinforce their melting brigades at war in Indonesia. Manus Ulzen was decorated for a tour in Java. Thus the name of the museum...we recognize the region in Indonesia, not the dark beans harvested there that I lust after. Ulzen family members also founded the clinic where Kirsten works. So, our house is some odd combination of an African cultural museum and, um, a mexican prison from a spaghetti western. The front half of the building houses the museum. One room of the museum houses the family who've taken very fine care of us. Behind their house is a series of four cells that house volunteers at the medical clinic. Currently, our family and a medical student from Canada are the only inmates. There are bars on the windows and our heavy wooden door bolts with hardware that a hollywood prop master would kill for. We do have non-potable running water including a shower and flush toilet. There is intermittent electricity. The food is outstanding, which is nice because I don't think there is a restaurant within a hundred miles and you might not enjoy the fish as much if you had seen where Lucy bought it. But in all we are reasonably comfortable and quite content.

About Our Trip

...I meant to get this in at the beginning of the blog, but not everything has gone completely as scheduled. Here are some of the details of our trip...

We'll try to update the blog as our family of four, ranging in age from 44 to 8 embarks on a 3-month adventure through Africa. We will be volunteering in Ghana (medical) and Tanzania (teaching). I think it will be roughly 60/40 volunteer/vacation time. We will safari in Kenya and Tanzania and vacation in Cape Town, South Africa.

Why are we going? We realize our time with our busy kids is short (even though it often can feel the opposite!) and we need to seize the opportunity to spend more time with them while they were still young and we aren’t too old. After some shortages at work resulting in long hours for me, I got this crazy idea about “bugging out” and getting some perspective on the world. I spent about six months researching and planning and decided to take the plunge in December 2008. Though our primary goal is building family relationships and discovering new places, we also hope to do some good along the way by volunteering and hopefully to teach the kids they have the power to make a difference in the world.

How are we doing it? I have been graciously granted a sabbatical from my group at the hospital. I will return to full time work in May. The recent addition of 9 new doctors to the group fortunately made room in the schedule for me to have a needed break. Chris' schedule is flexible, though he may not be, and mid-winter seemed like a fine time to be away from Oregon. Our kids are avid learners and despite the school they will miss their experiences alone will be great education for them. We are counting on their skill as students to learn in all kinds of settings; they will attend school in Tanzania while we are there and we will "home school” for the rest of the journey.

Many people have asked how much our adventure will cost. We focused more on creating a great experience than the expense. Our stints in Ghana and Tanzania are "voluntourism": we pay to work there. The bottom line is extended travel doesn’t cost nearly as much as people think it does. I have budgeted less than a tricked out Escalade. We pronounce that “Escalaaaaaade”.

Jubilating

Today they announced the results of the Ghanaian presidential election. That's the Dec 5 elections that were followed by the Dec 28 run-off concluding with today's deciding follow-up vote in the small community of Twain. We happened to be in 'downtown' Cape Coast when the results were made public. Imagine our luck! Have you seen "The Year of Living Dangerously"? There was much jubilating. By jubilating, the local term, I mean one of those third-world street celebrations you can only really appreciate if you've seen it. I don't think my 8-year old shared in the general enthusiasm. Apparently, there was going to be a rally or parade of some sort but we decided to leave town and went the opposite direction that 50.26% of people were jubilating and found a cabbie from among the 49.56% willing to drive us home. The NDC and their candidate John Atta-Mills have won. They are the party of change, having displaced the incumbent Nana Akufo-Addo of the NPP. From the tone in Cape Coast, this appears to be a good thing. Whether or not the government in power agrees and defers shall remain to be seen. Until this week, that is. Imagine our luck! No lame duck here. Incoming Atta-Mills will be sworn in on Jan 7. Start packing, Papa Nana. Here's to our hopes for a smooth transition.

Arriving in this...

Wow. It feels like, well, Africa. 100 degrees, 100% humidity. Every street is a spectacle. Over 30 hours of travel, culminating in one of those amazing, three-hour third-world bus rides. We had the nice bus - you know, the one with a TV blaring an African version of a telenovela. Made it to Elmina, found our host and arrived at our house here, the Java Museum of African History. That's right, we live in a museum. Or rather, in some cells behind a museum. Our family and a Canadian medical student are currently the only inmates. But we've got running water including a flush toilet, intermittent electricity the family who are caretakers of the museum, and us, are wonderful.

The jet-lagged 8-year old is an interesting phenomenon. Not compatible with the jet-lagged adult's conception of getting on time. Chloe stayed up through the night and read an entire novel. Impressive, but possibly not commensurate with the family unit's sanity. After four or five days, we seem to have adjusted. A funeral celebration began at 7:00 this morning at the house next door with blaring PA music and early-arriving guests; glad I tucked in early.

Kirsten has started work at the clinic, which is a couple blocks from the museum. She's busy, but seems to be enjoying the unique working environment. Lots of malaria. Some typhoid. The nurse beats children with a stick if they don't sit nicely for their exam.

Chris and the kids have been enjoying daily adventures around Elmina and Cape Coast after long mornings of home-schooling. The students are captive, the teacher is fatigued. Really it's going quite well and we fully expect them to be speaking fluent Spanish and doing higher math by the time we return.

Internet access is very limited, unfortunately. We'll continue to try to find solutions. But for now our blogging and emailing will be intermittent at best. Pictures will be difficult but I will upload some when I can. The cell phone works, sometimes, but only for voice, not data and it appears I can call you but you can't call me!

We're off to a beach resort this afternoon. Rain forest adventure tomorrow.